Chuck Braverman

Chuck Braverman, executive producer for “Weed Wars” (premiering 10 p.m. tonight, Discovery), insists he did not set out to make a “message film,” claiming that the reality series about the business of medical marijuana does not have a pro or con slant “one way or another.” But does he think it has the power to change minds? Absolutely.

After all, shooting the show over a six-month period at Oakland’s Harborside Health Center certainly reshaped his opinions.

“I’m very cynical, and going in, I had a built-in prejudice (against medical marijuana) that a lot of middle-aged or older people might have,” says Braverman, who said he can count on one hand how many times he’s smoked pot in the past 25 years. “But I came away thinking that there is some legitimacy here. It changed my mind.”

Upon arriving at Harborside in January, Braverman was convinced that a lot of people were going there “just to get high.” But as he spent more time in the state’s largest medical marijuana dispensary, he came to believe that a “much larger percentage of the patients there were really in need of the medicine.” Braverman said that some of the most compelling segments in “Weed Wars” are tied to before-and-after patient stories.

“I think they’re going to shock and surprise a lot of viewers,” he said, referring specifically to a 67-year-old suffering from high blood pressure and anxiety, who had never smoked marijuana in his life, and a child with severe epilepsy. (He went out of his way to avoid providing any spoilers).

Braverman’s production company was approached by Discovery in Sept. 2010 and the original plan was to do a documentary on several Northern California medical marijuana facilities. But upon meeting Steve DeAngelo at Harborside, he was so impressed with the center and its charismatic co-founder, that he decided to narrow his focus.